Same-sex couples who are considering gay surrogacy to conceive their families should examine the serious risks of unregulated programs overseas, said Bill Houghton, founder of the Sensible Surrogacy Guide.

As same-sex couples increasingly look for options to conceive children, many are choosing programs in countries without basic protections, according to Bill Houghton, founder of the Sensible Surrogacy Guide. Some destinations popular with gay couples have no specific legislation on surrogacy. This opens the door to unregulated programs with serious risks.

LGBT people have gradually stepped out from shadows over the last 50 years, not only transforming our own lives, but those of our families and communities. A generation or two ago, the children we raised were born of previous heterosexual relationships. This began to change in the 1970s and ‘80s, aided by helpful court rulings that reflected cultural sea change in attitudes toward gay people in general. In 1997, New Jersey became the first state to allow same-sex couples to adopt jointly.

Adoption, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and surrogacy are now viable avenues available for LGBT individuals and couples. Ultimately, the choice of how to build your family (adoption vs. fertility treatment) is a personal decision based on many factors. Those who seek help from assisted reproductive technologies want to have children with whom they share a genetic connection. What is this path like?

NORWALK, Conn. (WTNH) — Marriage equality has given more same-sex couples confidence to start a family – making local fertility clinics busier than ever. News 8’s Connecticut Families begins a two part look at what’s being called a Gay Baby Boom.

“Someone’s sexuality doesn’t necessarily come into playing regards to their desire to be a parent,” says Dr. Mark Leondires.

Suddenly, 60% of his clients are prospective parents who are gay, many of them male couples.

“For a long time, being a LBGT, we worried about safety,” he explains. “Now, with almost a stamp of validation from our Supreme Court, there’s a sense of safety and you feel like you’re family is going to be safe, as well.”

NORWALK, Conn. (WTNH)–Marriage equality has given more same-sex couples the confidence to start a family, making local fertility clinics busier than ever. It’s being called a Gay Baby Boom. In Part 2 of a special series, News 8 introduces viewers to a Westport couple, sharing their personal journey to have kids.

“It was something I always did want but didn’t think it was in my realm of possibilities,” says Greg Zola. As a young, gay man, he wasn’t sure he could realize his dream of becoming a parent.

There are several reasons to consider using a surrogate to bear your child. Male same-sex couples who want to have a biological child often use a surrogate. Some women are unable to carry and bear a child due to cancer treatment, genetic conditions, having had a hysterectomy, or medical conditions that make it dangerous for them to get pregnant. Sometimes couples use a surrogate when other fertility treatments have not been successful for them or there are problems with the female partner’s uterus. You may have heard of celebrity couples who have used surrogates, such as Jimmy Fallon and his wife Nancy Juvonen, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. Here are some facts you need to know before you start on your journey to a family with a surrogate.

Traditional methods aren’t typically available for queer people to grow their families, and growing families non-traditionally can be expensive. What are the options and costs for queer couples and individuals to consider when family planning?

The cost to raise a child from birth to 18 years old, not including family planning or college, is estimated by the USDA to be about $245,340. For many LGBT families, this is the minimum cost. This is why lack of financial planning when family planning could put queer families at financial risk.

A state appeals court in Brooklyn on Wednesday recognized the “presumption of legitimacy”—that a child born during a marriage is presumed to be the two spouses’ child—for a same-sex married couple that had been fighting to stop a male sperm donor from asserting parental rights to their daughter.

The ruling is the third time in the last five months that a state appeals court has made clear that New York’s family law presumption of legitimacy applies to same-sex couples—just as it does to heterosexual couples.

There are more options than ever for same-sex couples looking to expand their families, but it’s not a simple — or affordable — endeavor for many.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and his husband, British Olympic diver Tom Daley, announced on Valentine’s Day that they’re expecting their first child. But while there are more options than ever for same-sex couples looking to expand their families, it’s not a simple — or affordable — endeavor for many.

GREENWICH — When Wear Culvahouse, a Greenwich obstetrician-gynecologist, delivered a baby for the first male same-sex parents at Greenwich Hospital in 2004, he saw doors opening for himself as well.

The team assembled to to help the male couple included personnel from labor and delivery, the nursery and administration. They set up two rooms at Greenwich Hospital: One for the new fathers to learn how to bathe, feed and change their baby, and one for their surrogate to recover.

There have been huge changes in the surrogacy options available to gay men in recent years. Once only available in certain US states, for a short period gay singles and couples were engaging in Thailand, India, Nepal, Cambodia and more recently Mexico for surrogacy. But Asian countries have closed their doors to foreign surrogacy, leading to renewed interest in the US and a surge in interest in Canada. Kenya, Russia and even Nicaragua are starting to offer surrogacy to fill the void left when Asian nations closed. However a raft of complexities remain.

A New York state man who supplied his sperm for a lesbian couple’s at-home insemination was denied a paternity test by a state appeals court last week, possibly ending his battle for parental rights over the now 3-year-old girl who was born as a result of his donation.

A gay couple has created a conundrum for the Singaporean government by attempting to adopt a child born of an American surrogate mother. The two unnamed men, both Chinese, aged 45 with high salaries, paid a California woman US$200,000 to provide an egg and to gestate a baby, who was born in 2013.

Chris Buckley and Mark Ciano pose for a family portrait with their twin children, Ayla and Connor Ciano-Buckley.

The day Mark Leondires first held his baby in his arms, he felt a surge of love and responsibility. Finally his dream of being a father had become reality.

Like countless parents before him, he and his partner learned how to give a bath and change a diaper, guided by a helpful nurse. And like countless parents before him, he marvelled over his newborn son.